A n nu al R ep ort - Royal Agricultural Society of NSW

Highlights 2011/2012
SYDNEY ROYAL EASTER SHOW
The 2012 Sydney Royal Easter Show attracted
people from across Australia and overseas to
celebrate agricultural excellence and experience
unique animal activities and entertainment.
Visitors to the Show were also the first to
experience many features of the upgraded Main
Arena including new grandstands, refurbished
member facilities and the largest video
scoreboard in the southern hemisphere.
LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE
The 2012 Show attracted over 840,000 visitors from NSW, interstate
and international destinations, contributing over $500 million to the
NSW economy.
Post-Show research highlighted that 97 per cent of attendees
resided in New South Wales, regional visitation grew by two per cent
and 11 per cent of visitors were new customers.
Ticket sales to Asian markets increased by 65 per cent with
18,500 tickets sold, highlighting the growing appeal of the Show
internationally. Seven media and trade familiarisations were held with
over 100 international buyers, airline and media representatives in
attendance. Collectively they rated the 2012 Show as one of the top
three tourist attractions visited whilst in Australia.
Impressively, 97 per cent of visitors rated the Show as ‘enjoyable’ or
‘very enjoyable’.
SYDNEY ROYAL COMPETITIONS
The 2012 Show received over 29,000 entries across 40 competitions
and 5,000 competition classes. The Meat and Dual Purpose Sheep
competition witnessed a record number of entries, with significant
entry increases also evident in Cage Birds, Cattle, Dogs, Goats, Honey
and Rats & Mice competitions.
The Show continued to offer the largest agricultural Show prize
pool in Australia. Over $750,000 in cash prizes and 15,000 trophies,
certificates and medals were awarded over the 14 days of the Show.
An inaugural online survey was conducted with competition
exhibitors to ascertain what they liked about the 2012 Show and
areas they felt required improvement. The survey received an
overwhelmingly positive response with an 83 per cent return rate and
provided useful information for relevant Committees to analyse.
The new food and wine garden was a welcome addition to the Show.
Showgoers enjoyed tasting the state’s top drops at the NSW Wine
Experience, and Café NSW was a crowd favourite for its fresh NSWsourced
produce featuring Sydney Royal award-winning products.
New to the carnival offering was the Super Slide, which attracted
210,000 sliders. The appeal of the showbag was as strong as ever with
showgoers purchasing 1.7million showbags from a record 342 bags on
offer.
MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND SPONSORSHIP
Innovative marketing and communications strategies were
implemented in the lead up to and during the Show to drive
attendance and build a strong fan-base to communicate with on an
ongoing basis.
The Show website continued to be a key information tool used by
customers with website traffic increasing by 13.2 per cent to 943,713
unique visitors. Social media engagement was also on the rise with the
Show Facebook fans increasing from 15,811 to 35,733 in 2012.
The 2012 Show iPhone App was offered for free and was downloaded
95,475 times. The App became the most downloaded entertainment
App in the Apple iTunes store during the Show period and was featured
on the iTunes App store homepage.
An estimated $22 million in editorial coverage was generated for
the 2012 Show, with 25 new media outlets accredited to the event. The
Sunday Telegraph Official Guides inserted over two weekends in The
Sunday Telegraph increased circulation across both of the newspapers
by an average of 34 per cent beyond budgeted circulation uplift. Each
Guide had a circulation of 700,000 and a readership of 1.4 million
people.
A new sponsorship agreement was secured with Destination NSW
to support tourism marketing. Two new major agricultural sponsors
were also secured: Steggles for the Poultry Pavilion and Australian Wool
Innovation for the Sheep and Wool Pavilion.
FUTURE PLANS
The 2012/13 financial year is forecast to be a challenging year for
revenue generation for the RAS as the Sydney Royal Easter Show falls
outside of the school holiday period. To counter this, the RAS has
focused on developing innovative educational programs to attract
more school groups through the Show gates. The comprehensive
schools program has strong links to both primary and secondary
school syllabuses and teaches children important agricultural lessons.
ENTERTAINMENT, CARNIVAL AND SHOWBAGS
Showgoers were entertained with over 590 hours of free
entertainment, featuring close to 10,000 performers. New highlight
attractions included the Showtime Spectacular, featuring host James
Blundell, the RAS Stockmen’s Ride and the Colours of the Outback
Pyromusical; the Sinbad International High Dive Show; and Ashton’s
Circus Circus.
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Royal Agricultural Society of NSW